Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Down From Ten is now available in ebook and paperback formats, with new cover art and a new author’s note, from AWP Fiction.

I’ve been waiting for this day a long time. When I first wrote Down From Ten as a screenplay, a production company in Canada was going to be handling rights clearances for the Alan Jay Lerner music incorporated into one of the scenes. When I did the podcast, ASCAP was very helpful. But as a print book, I had to wade into a rights clearance arena I’d never worked with before.

It was worth it. And the folks at the company that manages the Lerner estate were very helpful. Because of their kind work, I can now proudly present you with the ebook version of Down From Ten, a novel uniquely close to my heart.

In early January, a group of friends gather for an annual retreat: eight artists, scientists, and authors cloistered together in a mansion in California’s high country for ten days of games, conversation, exhibition, and hedonism while isolated from the outside world.

The biggest Sierra snowstorm in over twenty years, however, is not part of their plans.

When the house is buried in an avalanche, leaving our heroes with no way to hike out, they must somehow survive and stay sane while waiting for rescue—which becomes difficult when they all start having the same dream.

“Down From Ten is a brilliant, sometimes creepy take on a bohemian cozy with surreal underpinnings and an irrepressibly touching ending.” –Gail Carriger, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Parasol Protectorate series

For the first time in text, read the story that View from Valhalla calls “Unique, lavish, and challenging…amazing in its scope and its detail…with THE most surprising ending I’ve EVER experienced.” Get it now in paperback, or for your Kindle, Nook, or any other reader.

Welcome to the first of several Down From Ten Feedback shows. This one is episode eleven of the Dealing In series of feedback shows, where I and several friends answer your emails and talk about whatever comes up. This time, I’m joined by Metamor City and Down From Ten cast member Chris Lester, New York Times Bestseller Gail Carriger, and producer/actor/cartoonist Kitty NicIaian. What do we talk about? An incomplete list, in no particular order:

Due to some unforeseen production hiccups, some involving my own life, some with lives of our rockin’ cast members, DF10 isn’t finished yet and there hasn’t been an episode in seven weeks.

This situation is now about to change.

In my hot little hands are two near-complete episodes – 19 and 20. 19 will drop tonight. 20 will drop either Friday or Saturday. If all goes well, I’ll be able to drop two more episodes next week, and then the final 3 the week after.

My many apologies for the delays – I hope the story turns out to be worth the wait!

This is the official page of Down From Ten, a country house mystery by J. Daniel Sawyer. This project started life as a miniseries written on commission from the now-defunct Pixelated Fog Productions in Newfoundland. Originally part of a financing grant, the rights reverted to me when the deal fell apart and the nascent company was forced to fold.

The story itself grew out of a treatment I wrote a couple years back, which PFP picked out of a group I offered them. Their directions were : Make it controversial. So I did. The book is a mix of Agatha Christie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, E.A. Poe, Salman Rushdie, and Robert A. Heinlein. It is a story solidly oriented towards adults, and will not be suitable for children in any fashion.

Although I would still love to make this project into a film, I realized that it would be a fairly quick task to adapt a 6 hour miniseries to a book for podcasting, to fill the summer between books one and two of The Antithesis Progression. Adapting it turned out to be more difficult than I thought – nonetheless, I’m currently on schedule to start release Memorial Day Weekend. Like my previous podio endeavors, this production will feature a full cast performance, original music, and soundscaping.

I am currently still seeking actors for several roles, listed as “Auditions Open” on the “Dramatis Personae” page of this website. If you are interested in reading for a role, please drop me an email: dan at jdsawyer.net